I had the good fortune of seeing "The One Man Star Wars Trilogy" this week, performed by Charles Ross, a fellow grad of the University of Victoria. Beginning in Victoria this week, he's touring his show at Canadian fringe festivals this summer. (He debut performance was at last year's Toronto Fringe Festival.)
Amazingly, in the span of an hour, Charles recreates key moments of "Star Wars," "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" without a single prop. He plays all the characters, performs John Williams' score, makes the sound effects, and acts out stunts and effects sequences. It's both bewildering and hilarious - especially Jabba the Hutt! How any hardcore Star Wars fan could have the stamina to do more than one such performance a year is beyond me...
Here are his upcoming performances.
Heard back from the Seattle Review, which wasn't interested in my poem inspired by my trip to the city. Oh well, back to the drawing board. Here's a poem I had published in the Fall 2001 issue of Chaos, inspired by a summer 2001 trip to Toronto:
DOWNTOWN
From apartment security smartly step
Onto cracked concrete carpet.
Daunting skyscraper canopy diffuses
Smog wafts, waves of humid heat.
Off my shades city's riff-raff reflect
Like a swirl of summer glare.
Bistro, cafe, deli, boutiques, antiques...
To disappear among Yonge's marching masses:
Yuppies, homies, models, tourists, purists,
Each focused on his, her, its destination,
Oblivious to my curious glance, grin
Overseen only by Toronto's towering bearing.
